The examination of autopsied brain tissues from patients who died of serious neurological conditions has revealed that many tick-borne infections, such as Lyme disease, go undiagnosed and untreated. Board-certified pathologist, Alan B. MacDonald, MD, says his research shows “tick infections are not easily detected with routine tests, nor are they easily cured with short courses of antibiotics.”

Borrelia burgdorferi/CDC

MacDonald presented his findings Thursday on Capitol Hill, in the Rayburn House Office Building, at a forum to explore the scientific, economic, and policy challenges posed by the epidemic of Lyme disease and associated tick-borne illnesses.

MacDonald found three Borrelia pathogens, including B. burgdorferi the causative agent of Lyme disease, thriving inside parasitic nematode worms, worm eggs or larvae in the brain tissue of nineteen deceased patients. These microscopic worms are endosymbionts, meaning the Borrelia bacteria dwell inside the worms. A tick bite delivers the nematode into the human body.

“Both the worms and the Borrelia pathogens can cause devastating brain damage,” said MacDonald. “Current tests, like the ELISA and Western blot, do not adequately detect the presence of Borrelia bacteria.” MacDonald says his discovery also shows “while patients are wrongly declared free of Lyme and other tick-borne infections, in reality, too often they contract serious neurodegenerative diseases which can kill them.”

The Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center Tissue Bank provided MacDonald with ten specimens from deceased MS patients; all ten specimens showed evidence of Borrelia infected nematodes. Infected worms were also found in five tissue specimens from patients who succumbed to the highly malignant brain tumor Glioblastoma multiforme, the same cancer which took the life of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). Ironically, in 1993, Senator Kennedy chaired a hearing of the Labor and Human Resources committee titled: Lyme disease: A Diagnostic and Treatment Dilemma. Finally, four specimens from patients who died from Lewy Body dementia, the same illness which afflicted comedian Robin Williams, also showed the presence of infected nematodes.

MacDonald’s work breaks new ground while building on previous studies. In 1984, Lyme pioneer Willy Burgdorfer, Ph.D. wrote of finding nematodes in tick guts. In 2014, University of New Haven researcher Eva Sapi, Ph.D., examined the guts of ticks gathered in southern Connecticut and found 22% of the nymphs and 30% of adult Ixodes ticks carried nematodes in their systems.

MacDonald identified the infected nematodes using a technique known as FISH: Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization which involves using molecular beacon DNA probes. FISH identifies pieces of Borrelia’s genetic material which fluoresce under the microscope with a 100% DNA match. Dr. MacDonald, a fellow of the Academy of American Pathologists, conducts his research through the Dr. Paul Duray Research Fellowship Endowment Inc. MacDonald’s presentation can be accessed here:https://vimeo.com/166688480.

My son had Lyme disease at the age of 4 and was treated with antibiotics by Yale New Haven ..back when it was first being researched …He then developed brain cancer at age 23 …wonder if there is a connection ….

You bet there’s a connection! It’s hard to kill all them critters. Please go to thetruthaboutcancer.com if there is still time to help your son. Chemotherapy causes cancer! So does surgery and radiation. There are excellent natural treatment which will cure him and not cause a new cancer.

There are certain things that go up with lyme disease & other Co infections like VEGF it’s a signaling protein that promotes the growth of new blood vessels. It also is present when cancer grows. Dr Spector a top Duke Oncologist was finally diagnosed with lyme disease & other Co infections, he is a Dr at Duke University. He states “Lyme, the infectious disease evaluate to cancer.

Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that MacDonald found Borrelia bacteria in all of the samples he tested — samples from people not previously suspected of having Lyme infection? And that he is an advocate of a discredited test methodology and laboratory for Lyme disease, which prompted this warning from the CDC:

With this history and the extraordinary claim that MacDonald found both the nematodes and Borrelia in every sample of tissue from people never previously suspected of having Lyme disease raises serious doubts about his reliability. I certainly find his claims utterly unbelievable.

It is certainly looking like this is the case. For over 40 years the CDC have done nothing and during this time Lyme has been passed on through ticks , mosquitoes , the human placenta and possibly more means. No one knows why it gets out of control and takes over the body for some , but commonly there is a shock , trauma or bereavement which seems to trigger it. It seems Lyme is four times more prolific than HIV , so you can imagine the governments reluctance to expose plus many other neurological diseases may well have been lyme , which is a highly intelligent bacteria that can take over hosts and the way they think , they mimic other diseases like MS, ME , Lupus etc.

Maybe he’s working some angle that gets him some money. His “research” was sponsored by the Duray Research Foundation. The late Paul Duray was pursuing these nematode hypotheses back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, so obviously the foundation wouldn’t be interested in funding any research which found the nematodes do not cause all these many diseases.

He’s DONATING his time and resources – what secret motive does he have? He’s tired of seeing people not be able to get the positive test using the unreliable and unproven tests that are currently being pushed by those that don’t wish this to be known. What are the motives of those that push outdated guidelines and refuse to help get a test developed that is accurate is what we need to know. The current testing by ELISA misses up to 70% of those that actually have Lyme disease. It only recognizes 2 out of the 100 strains that are here in the US. Why aren’t we up in arms about the 300,000 plus A YEAR that are newly diagnosed with these infections?

Does ELISA really miss up to 70% of those who actually have Lyme disease, or does it miss those who have been convinced by Lyme advocates that they have Lyme disease when they actually don’t? Maybe this statistic shows that the hysteria has reached the point that 70% of people who think they have Lyme don’t really have it.

Why do medical people fail to follow up on such a serious problem? There is more money in keeping people sick and there is corruption in the minds and hearts of way too many! This research should be confirmed by many more not dismissed!!!

I hadn’t heard that Paul Duray was pursuing these hypotheses back in the day. That is interesting, any links or info on that? would be curious to read up on it if any info is available.

I’m also not sure how MacDonald would really make money on this nematodes angle as I doubt there would be new patentable diagnostics he could bring to market or novel therapies.

MacDonald’s research is intriguing, I think there are many more questions to be answered. It could be that the borrelioses are a relatively common organism and that many people harbor it, and under the right circumstances it will manifest after lingering in the body for decades. These are just hypotheses, who knows, but we do need to do large scale pathology studies looking at this (imo), that would help clear things up.

I was in error in saying that MacDonald’s research was supported by the Paul Duray Research Foundation. MacDonald is in fact the founder and director of the Paul Duray Research Foundation, so that would be like saying he is supporting himself. Basically, the two are synonymous.

Maybe you explain why you are afraid of the new science? And why the CDC has recruited people to talk with doctor’s offices and hospitals to make sure they are using treatment guidelines that have been removed from the National Guidelines Clearinghouse instead of supporting the guidelines that ARE on the NGC?

I read an article on the “Seven Overlooked Factors in the treatment of Lyme Disease”
and would like to ask why the information in the item about MULTI DRUG RESISTANT
organisms DID NOT Mention the real reason that the Body cannot detect and
use the Immune System to deal with the infectious organism..

It is NOT merely the BIOFILM covering the organism that protects it…
Borrelia is a GramNegative organism like Mycoplasma which does not have a Cell Wall of it’s own and it is protected by the cell membrane of the HOST’S own cells..

The Reproductive Cycle of the Organism is also longer than the course of most antibiotic
treatments of (2 or 3 weeks) at most .. Only if the treatment continues long enough,
can the infection be treated as it matures and breaks out to infect a new host cell..
It splices itself into the DNA of the New Cell and cannot be detected by simple
Agar Plate cultures.. Only by analysis by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) can the
bacteria marker be detected.. It is like DNA analysis .. The specific organisms must be requested to be tested or they may be missed…
Mycoplasma, Ureaplasma etc are detected in this way… So can Borrelia,

It is not a drug resistant bacteria that is the problem… It is a case of needing a longer treatment with a simple antibiotic which is cheaper and is never used today to save anyone’s life..
Why then, is this missed my most GPs ? Why are Lyme Patients not sent to qualified
Infectious Disease Specialists?

I learned this many years ago from a respected Dr Gabe Mirkin (Kensington Maryland)
on his website and from his informative radio Show… over 20 years ago..
(He is very old now. probably nearly 90.) but seems to still be seeing patients.http://www.drmirkin.com/about-dr-mirkin
If his knowledge is not passed on an not used by today’s Doctors, that is a disservice to
current patients.. Hopefully, you will pass on what I have written, and researched to see if it can be added to your suggestions…
see link to Doctor Gabe Mirkin below

You are absolutely correct regarding the part about long-term treatment for Lyme. 14 months in a PICC line, with four weeks of infusions followed by six weeks of no infusions, was successful in putting my severe neurolyme into full remission.

What’s your agenda….?? Isn’t it obvious that money runs things and there is no money in wellness? Where is your conscience??? People are suffering dementia and hordes of disease at the moment and it behooves a person with a conscience to study this further, not trash these things….

No it does not. Talk to patients that have been properly diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease and I will bet nearly all, if not all of them were misdiagnosed with these type of diseases. Many of them are diagnosed for years and sometimes decades, never suspecting the problem was Lyme. Finally, many of them pass never having any idea their symptoms were due to Lyme infections.
So again, no it does not surprise me at all. To add to this, I will not be surprised when we start to get a true grasp on just how epidemic Chronic Lyme really is. When or if the tests get better and are accepted as a standard test for patients suffering any type of chronic disease, we’ll wish the number of new infections was only 300,000 per year.

They kept diagnosing me with mental illness because the areas of my body that were causing me severe pain kept changing. They did not give me a Lyme test until all my synovial sacs throughout my body started leaking. Took over ten years. This has lead to me having chronic Lyme.

Agree wholeheartedly. I am hoping that the LymeSeq test developed by TGen and currently under evaluation will provide the answer to an extremely reliable test for Lyme. My guess is that the number of people contracting this disease is much higher than 300,000.

Mark Thorson, do you have other links to MacDonald’s research and the test? What I read in that one link is concerning, but not (IMO) damning. It does not actually surprise me that he found both nematodes and Borrelia in all the patients and samples he tested; he may have been the only one looking for them.

I did not know beforehand that MacDonald is the inventor of the test he is using. There is a long history of extraordinary claims being made by crackpots who invented their own pseudoscientific tests, instruments, or other apparatus. See for example:

sir, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for casting these ridiculous aspersions on someone who is doing all this for free and out of care for people and just so you know his research partner has HAD the illness 18 years and watched friends die of it. This is not a joke. I am 32 and I am being tested for MCI and that’s early dementia and I don’t have any relatives who had dementia before 65. This guy is for real. He offered to biopsy me for free. He does what he does out of science. He might not be right about it being the cause in all cases, but spirochetes, including but not limited to Lyme may be responsible for many otherwise UNEXPLAINED neurological illnesses. That is not a fraud to suggest nor to point out. Nor is it anything but correct and ethical to develop counter tests to the failed ELISA. I have had multiple doctors admit to me that ELISA is flawed. Period.

You do realize that’s EXACTLY what the CDC does don’t you ? And are you aware that the CDC is not a gov.org – it’s a non-profit owned by the CDC Foundation , which is OWNED by pharma – and that good ole Dr. Offit OWNS patents on all those vaccines he pushes …. I could go on , but let all that sink in …….

Sorry you are wrong. The CDC foundation is separate from the CDC. The CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. View CDC’s Official Mission Statements/Organizational Charts to learn more about CDC′s organizational structure. The CDC foundation was set up by Congress to support health issues but it is not the CDC. The director of the CDC is picked by the President of the United States. CDC foundation is a non profit charity foundation. Pharmaceutical companies have no bearing on this charity. They are too busy paying thousands and thousands of dollars to FDA for clinical trials, research and the like to get their drugs approved in the United States

I trust this guy. I think he was the doc that found Lyme in 7 Out of 10 patients who died from Alzheimer’s. Lyme is being misdiagnosed. Lyme presents as a whole range of other diseases. It is called the great imitator. The bacteria can hide and change its appearance. It is believed to be a bioweapon devised by our government. Would not surprise me one bit. I was diagnosed last year after having multitudes of symptoms for 30 years. No one put it all together until I drove 6 hours to see a specialist in another state. I have been doing extensive research for myself because there are few doctors who know how to treat Lyme including my own. Antibiotics don’t work for longstanding cases and may not work at all in the end.

It’s not a bioweapon! We only add the Borrelia-infected nematodes to the chemtrails solution to keep the aerosol nozzles clean! That’s the only reason. Does a great job! Somebody should come up with a household cleaner based on this stuff — if they haven’t already.

You should get OFF this site. You use sarcasm to mock people who are dealing with real problems. Do you have Lyme disease? Do you have any neurological illness. I do. Diagnosed more than once by several people. This stuff is no joke. Sarcasm is NOT logical.
By the way, the reason that 100 percent of the samples contained borrelias is likely that the samples were taken from SICK people to begin with. Sick and dying people donated their brains to be stained, as I am going to, if I die of this. Do you think the deaths of others and the life work of a good man is some kind of joke?
I would like to see you go talk this way about cancer researchers and patients. Leave Lyme victims alone. You can find some way to express yourself that doesn’t involve mockery. The suffering is not a joke, nor is dementia. I’m not sure you really understand the buttons you are pushing with your comments, and it’s not about your ego to defend your skepticism…it’s about the reality, which is that this illness is serious, undertreated, underdiagnosed, not properly tested for, etc, etc, etc. What knowledge on God’s earth do you have of this issue? Did you lose a child to Lyme or suicide related to Lyme? I know people who have. This is a real issue and MacDonald has spent 30 years studying pathology and THE DISCOVERER OF LYME Willy Burdorfer stated before his death that the misdiagnosis of Lyme is a “Disgrace” you can find it online easily. Is this man who discovered borrelia burdorfi a fraud, too? Please research these matters before mocking the work of research and mocking patients who express their worries.

Week said! I’ve been suffering with unexplained neurological problems and brain fog for 20 years misdiagnosed repeatedly. I brain spec scan just showed Lyme in my brain. I’m finally being treated with IV antibiotics for the Deseases that ruined 20 years of my life. It’s nothing to mock! Your misguided Mark. Research is finally on our side.

You never heard of Plum island and project paper clip, borrilia is a bioweapon pls do you research ,it was a bioweapon in world war 2 Germans used it . After the war we placed the German scientist at plum island to work for the USA

Discredited? How do you figure it was a discredited testing method and lab? And your link doesn’t work for those that aren’t a member of Medscape. Maybe you can find an article that we can all read? You know, keep everything out in the open?

Mark, do your research before you discredit and mock things. The CDC is no friend of Lyme research or advances. It takes a backward flat earth position on Lyme disease. It supports IDSA, which was almost prosecuted for conflicts of interests surrounding Lyme and a vaccine in 2008. IDSA is nothing but a private organization with way less members than ILADS, the real organization for the study of Lyme. Even if MacDonald is overestimating the effects of borrelia in the brain on other diseases, his findings are significant and worth studying more. Judith McKlossey also found a statistical link between borrelias…and Lyme was only one…and Alzheimers Disease, whose real cause is, as we all know, supposedly unknown. Genes could very well interact with infection to incite AD. The theories of the last twenty years in AD have NOT led to a cure or to even a plausible treatment. We may need to consider the involvement of things like parasites, spirochetes, toxins like heavy metals and genes to really get to the bottom of it. Also, I’m a three year victim of this who is only 32 and exhibiting some signs of early MCI. This is not normal. The test Alan defended was the ONLY test that ever correctly located my Lyme infection. The ELISA is a failure because most people don’t make antibiody to Lyme for several reasons. The CDC knows this and so does EVERY doctor in America. My neuropsychologist knows this and he sat in private and told me I got screwed and why. No one here is stupid and Alan MacDonald has located something important when he finds nematode worms in the same brain with Lewy Body Dementia. This should NOT be dismissed out of hand.
Brooke Kramer

You’re probably a government spook out to discredit anyone trying to highlight this killer ive requested the police arrange an autopsy when I die as I am riddled my brain is like it’s drowning I tested part positive for lymes but #LSTM here in the UK have shut me up silenced me with an unlawful diagnosis of DOP there’s a pattern ! Anyone presents Morgellons or Lyme symptoms they silence us with psychiatrists it genocide in the UK I’m a dead man walking nobody will treat me now ive been branded by the evil doctors here.

The test was never discredited.. merely ”unapproved” which in and of itself means absolutely nothing in regards to its accuracy. Unless you are a qualified to peer review his study, then all you have are circumstantial concerns, which shouldn’t be knitted together into anything close to a valid conclusion.

Not really!!!! Considering the CDC DRASTICALLY under reports, suggests an inadequate treatment with Doxy, and has not informed the general population that this is sexually and congenitally transmitted!!!!

P.S. Doesn’t it also seem a bit odd that a government organization devoted to public health would claim that their recommended Lyme disease blood tests are 100% sensitive in late-stage Lyme disease (with zero research studies cited), while numerous studies published in peer-reviewed journals state those same tests are in fact only up to 67% sensitive? And at the request for citation, no response?? Hmmmm, curious indeed.

Drexel University has also been exploring this and finding some promising leads in this arena.

The preeminent spirochetael experts of their time, Gabriel Steiner and Lida Mattman were finding spirochetes in very high rates in MS patients they studied. Worth looking into their work.

This is a copy of a comment I wrote:

I’ve been curious about the MS/spirochetal hypothesis (which was the predominant hypothesis in the first half of the 20th century). Here is a snippet of what I came across (in case it can be of interest!).

I stumbled upon this info when I was looking up the research of Ichelson, it is actually an interesting story. From a review by Mark Jorge a biomedical scientist in regards to MS and spirochetes:

“Certain similarities between MS and known spirochaetal diseases led to the hypothesis, popular between 1909 and the 1950s, that MS might be caused by these microbes. The driving force for this hypothesis came from Germany,12,13 where spirochaetal organisms had been seen in CNS tissue using silver stains. Sadly, the advent of Nazism and the cataclysm of World War II resulted in the disappearance of both researchers and their work after 1935. Gabriel Steiner, one of the few researchers who remained, emigrated to America after the war and continued his work on spirochaetes until 1954.14

Acceptance of the spirochaetal hypothesis continued until 1957 when Ichelson published an ill-fated paper15 in support of the theory, only to retract her findings and admit that her distilled water had been contaminated with spirochaetal organisms. In a good example of throwing the baby out with the bath water, the subsequent uproar saw not only Ichelson’s reputation but also the credibility of the spirochaetal hypothesis destroyed.

The long-term damage was devastating for spirochaetal research, with the influential MS Society refusing to fund further work, which discouraged other bodies from supporting research, even to the present day.”

Ichelson’s mistake basically destroyed this whole angle of investigation, destroyed its institutional credibility, even though it had been promising and worthy of further pursuits. The MS foundations were embarrassed, so funding dried up and there weren’t really any researchers to take up Steiner’s mantle (except for Lida Mattman and possibly a few others, but they remained on the so called fringes I suppose). I had always presupposed that the reason the MS/pathogen (spirochete) hypothesis disappeared was that new research came about and directly refuted this hypothesis. But as far as I know, the hypothesis has never been refuted by research. Considering the work of the preeminent spirochete experts of their time like Gabriel Steiner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Steiner) and Lida Mattman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lida_Holmes_Mattman), I think it is important to keep pursuing this angle and fully examining and vetting it. We have not invested enough resources to answer these questions.

I think we’re eventually going to get much more fully formed answers on the spirochetal/pathogen hypothesis in regards to MS and other neuro conditions (whether it is yay or nay or a mix in between I can’t say). The problem is culturing spirochetes is pretty hard and a pain, you have to be really looking for them and know what you’re doing, and in the current research world there aren’t a lot of people working and specialized in this field (unlike pre-World War II Germany which had the greatest spirochete experts). Plus, given the toxic and highly politicized atmosphere surrounding research of the borrelioses in the United States, many researchers shy away from studying these pathogens, which is a complete shame.
But even if spirochetal infections are involved to some degree in some of these conditions, I doubt they will be the only pathogens in the mix. If the microbial angle plays some role it will likely be a spectrum and mix of microbes that are working in combination, vibing off each other, helping drive the inflammatory pathways in genetically susceptible hosts.

Can we at least agree that the people who say that the CDC claims their recommended tests for Lyme are “100% sensitive” are either completely misinformed or lying? I’m not suggesting Allison Johnston was lying, but she may have been exposed to one or more of the numerous websites that make absolutely untrue statements about the CDC-recommended tests for diagnosing Lyme disease.

It really has always seemed that the government as well as the CDC do not really want to be involved with Lyme . The insurance companies for sure do not want 100 % accurate tests for the disease because they do not want to pay for the treatment, and therefore we do not have a recommended treatment for Lyme. The tests that are used are not very useful in many cases however if the test shows positive it is usually considered correct. The problem is , most tests return negative which only means that the test did not detect the disease, the patient still may well have Lyme. It is hard to believe that they are medical professionals that stand with the insurance companies and claim that Lyme is a simple disease that is easily cured with a short antibiotic treatment. Unless things really change in the US I do not think we will see much advancement towards diagnosis and treatment of Lyme. So I say to everyone , be very careful , if you are on any kind of med that turns down your immune system be extra careful. The ticks are tiny and you will not even feel them crawling on you or biting you. Two young brothers both got Lyme in their own back yard right in their subdivision.

Mark you obviously have never had Lyme!!! I DO! My life has changed! I am not concerned with what organization is discredited or is not! Or what the “medical community” thinks about a certain doctor. For that matter Ignaz Semmelweis was ALSO discredited, laughed at, mocked by fellow doctors, was called insane and placed in a mental institution because he said hand washing prevented his mothers from dying during delivery. Today we now know him as the “Father of hand washing” that has saved so many life’s. But he was punished for his brilliance. We can say the same for those many years ago with fibromyalgia, anyone who had it was “crazy” today there is a dedicated wing at the Mayo clinic to study it as the medical community has changed their mind about it and it now a “real syndrome” Every year science evolves and we find that those who are laughed at and mocked later become known for their brilliant work. THEY ARE THE REAL PIONEERS IN THE FIELD! Willing to take the risk to get answers and not simply just medicate patients or let them die! After all “big pharma” runs doctors today! Just throw a bandaid on cancer with a little medicine and cover it up! YOU KNOW IT IS THE TRUTH! What YOU need to be aware of is MANY studies are now ongoing and they are finding that the MAJORITY of brain inflammatory disease possibly could be linked to Lyme. Now there is a real thought! Spirochetes, which is what Lyme is, can penetrate the blood brain barrier. So duhhhh we are wondering why so many mysterious inflammatory brain diseases are coming up?!?!?!?! MS, ALS, Alzheimer’s, PARKINSON’S, the list goes on and on! Do you think there just MIGHT be a correlation between increased Lyme, SEVERELY undiagnosed lyme and an increase in brain inflammatory diseases. Ummm YES! Keep trying to cover it up, eventually Lyme will make it’s way to one of your family members like myself and perhaps then you will be on your hands and knees praying that one of those pioneers can find a way to help you!

By the way… I come from a medical background and my father was a pharmacist… part of that “big pharma” revolution that he woke up from when I got sick. My knowledge of lyme and the studies far exceeds what the typical medical school teaches Lyme, which is almost NOTHING! For the remainder of you reading this I suggest you look up Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD and Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, both have EXTENSIVE knowledge and research.

Thank you Christi! Brilliant rebuttal to Mark’s statements! I agree with you 100%. I’m seeing a Shoemaker trained MD this week to get evaluated for CIRS. We will do the testing to determine the source of biotoxin illness, whether it’s from Lyme or exposure to Water Damaged Buildings. Have you done any of the Shoemaker protocol for your Lyme?

I’m not saying you didn’t have Lyme disease, nor that you do not continue to suffer aftereffects from the infection. I do dispute the notion that their are subtle chronic Lyme infections only diagnosable by newly invented methods which are not at all accepted by genuine scientists in the field. It’s like the parents with autistic children who claim that it was caused by vaccines. I do not dispute that their children have autism or that their families suffer because of it — but that does not make their belief that it was caused by vaccines a fact. They can believe what they want, but facts are established by science.

There is actually a great deal of evidence from real doctors and scientists who believe that vaccines can be dangerous and ineffective and cause a myriad of chronic disorders including autism. There are two kinds of science, one is popularly accepted, government sanctioned, CDC promoted, “real” science and then there are doctors and scientists whose work falls out of the mainstream and who expose previously accepted beliefs to new light and chronic disorders to new alternative treatments who are usually discredited by the mainstream establishment because they often make people well and don’t create lifelong pharmaceutical patients. If you are not reading equal amounts of the work on both sides of the issue then you are not doing adequate research and your opinion lacks credibility.

And what employer might that be? Your response is a perfect example of the conspiracy-minded lunatic fringe which is the mainspring driving the “chronic Lyme disease” nonsense.

But no matter. I’ve traced your IP address and assigned an FBI sharpshooter to hit you with a dart full of Thorazine (GSK brand chlorpromazine), a psychotropic drug invented by my grandfather for which our family still receives millions of dollars every year.

Mark, You are doing a good job of educating those who have open minds. I really appreciate your attempts to debunk the Pseudoscience – I love science but really hate all the conspiracy theory – fear mongering faux science articles that litter the web. This past week a friend of mine who fell for all of this sort of stuff – who refused chemo – and had bone cancer died. Way before her time. There is a terrible side effect to this sort of malarkey.

Charlie,
Be careful whom you trust. Lyme Disease persisting in the human body is no conspiracy. It’s proven in 700 articles published and peer reviewed. Lyme tests are unreliable. I have that from several medical doctors and a nueropsychologist. I’m 32 with early signs of dementia after a three year battle with Lyme untreated due to bad testing and insurance controversies. Companies do not wish to cover extended treatment, even if that is what is required to treat and eradicate infection. If in fact it even can be eradicated. A new study from U of C San Diego shows even with early treatment 50% of Lyme sufferers do Not recover. The spirochete, which is in it’s own phyllum and is NOT a bacteria, survives in the presence of the immune system due to outer surface protein which shifts. The innate immune system cannot tag or destroy it. Spirochetes all can shed their cells walls. Most abx attack bacteria by breaking cells walls. Spirochetes in this form are known as cysts. The are not killed by anything. You merely control them from reproducing over time with protein synthesis drugs like doxycycline. The spirochete has a very long life cycle..28 days. so it is easy for it to appear to be in remission but over time it comes back.
This is what happened to me. Even after much antibiotic treatment with a PICC line, brain symptoms resumed. After I thought my ordeal was over. Lyme may incite other disease processes, too. Just because they are linked, does not mean they are the same thing, nor is that what MacDonald is saying. He is showing a correlation and perhaps one among many causitive factors.
I would encourage you if you are interested in this issue to speak with people who have had this illness, have suffered incredible personal losses thanks to it, have endured a lot of pain, and learned many things which most people are not taught about Lyme to begin with. This is knowledge which would have prevented my illness, as I did not even know what a bulls eye rash was, or what lyme was, muchless the finer details and the controversies surrounding it. I’m a normal person who has suffered from this and learning about it everyday and I’m very young with no family history of early onset dementia and am having short term memory and cognition issues that suggest cognitive impairment and am being tested and followed for this right now. Persisting Lyme is not a joke. Mark’s sarcasm is not appropriate in the face of the seriousness of this, and he is surely no expert in any way and Quackwatch is NOT smarter than lifelong scientists and doctors in the field of Lyme disease study. ILADS has way more members worldwide than does IDSA, a private organization which does NOT specialize in borrelia. This organization was sadly almost investigated in 2008 for certain conflicts of interest involving a vaccine. This is not conspiracy. It’s public record. The Lyme disease issue has reached capital hill many times. MacDonald has testified to Congress. He is no whacko. He does what he does for no money. He was going to biopsy me for free but the doctors who realized I could sue if Lyme was found, refused to even take the sample because of a “liability” issue. I have been told word of mouth by doctors what the real climate is they face. They are persecuted by insurers for treating too long with antibiotics. They are told by their employers and boards how to treat based on expenditures, not on science. This is well known by professionals. It’s not some conspiracy. Quackwatch is surely not smarter about borrelia than Willy Burdorfer who discovered the disease’s cause and stated publicly that the denial of persisting Lyme is a “disgrace.” Please look up this video, Charlie. It’s not some joke. There’s a serious problem with how this illness is diagnosed and treated and real people’s lives are deeply affected.
To us who are sick this is not an idle intellectual exercise in fighting about things. This is sad facts that have damaged us.
In a choice between believing Mark and quackwatch and me a 30 years neurologist who diagnosed me and knows all this stuff, please choose to hear me and the doctors and patients who know what this involves through personal experience. Thank you for listening!

Here is the CDC admitting that they have known for YEARS that thimerosal which is used in vaccines causes autism

——this is from the website: With help from PhD Scientist and Biochemist, Brian Hooker, the agency has finally had to reveal that they have known for years that thimerosal, which was banned in 1999, but still used in over 60 vaccines, causes autism. Robert F. Kennedy has been trying to alert the public of the same troublesome findings that Hooker has unveiled, but he is often dismissed, or worse, made into a media fool by the pharmaceutical industry.

News flash. Thimerosol was removed from all childhood vaccined (except the multi-dose flu vaccine) more than 15 years ago. Autism rates did not go down. Ergo………..thimerosol cannot be blamed for autism.

You really do need to broaden your reading, Mark. There are so very many scientific articles that have shown persistent Borrelia infections that resist treatment, that there’s no way to list them all here. But, if someone has had the ‘full treatment’ for pneumonia, doctors don’t turn them away telling them they just need to learn to live with the ongoing infection do they? No, they continue treatments until the infection is gone. With Lyme patients, they get substandard treatment (3 weeks of antibiotics doesn’t even cover one full life cycle of the bacteria when it’s in the body as they only replicate once every 4 weeks), and are told that if they need more antibiotics later for this (to bring symptoms under control yet again), that’s okay.Why the double standard? Why do the antibiotics control symptoms if there is no active infection? And why are there still people that are so afraid of science and the fact that it changes?

Thank you Christi. Very well spoken. I recently was bitten by a tick. I thought it was a skin tag on the back of my arm and pulled it off. It was bigger than a grain of pepper so I”m thinking it wasn’t the tick that carries Lyme disease. It left a raised mark smaller than a dime, almost like a mosquito bite and a bit of redness around the area, but no bulls eye. It itched a little bit, but went away after about two weeks. I wonder if I contracted lyme disease, but because of the current state of affairs in medicine concerning lyme disease, I have no idea where to start to determine if I have it. I do know making an appointment with my primary will be a waste of money. I will read the links you posted.

I don’t know anything about Dr. MacDonald (aim to change that soon). What we need is for others (that are independent opposite the lyme test controversy) to replicate what he has done.

As for the CDC, I know they do really good and important work (I really appreciate their weekly tracking of flu outbreaks, for example). But they fell down a couple of notches in my respect when the whistleblower story broke, and also a bit more when the former head got her new job in the pharma industry. They aren’t perfect, and I don’t doubt that a large institution with many experts could be collectively quite wrong (Semelweiss effect). Time will tell.

In the meantime, I wouldn’t begrudge anyone that has some reasonable evidence that they might be suffering from lyme to hedge their bets and not put all their eggs in the CDC basket.

I don’t think this is a difficult question to answer at all. MacDonald claims to have found both nematodes and Borrelia in all 10 samples from MS patients, all 5 samples from brain cancer patients, and all 4 samples from Lewy body dementia patients. This is — to put it the most charitable way — an astounding and extraordinary result. When you further consider that this same MacDonald has a history of advocacy for a Lyme disease test condemned by the FDA and CDC, it’s pretty clear that this is a man who cannot be trusted.

Mr. Thorson, I do not begrudge you your opinions and would like to better understand why you so strongly criticize Dr. MacDonald’s findings, the methods he employed and the validity of both. It would be helpful if you provided your credentials, training and education so we might better evaluate for ourselves if you are in a position to shed some light on the validity of Dr. MacDonald’s research or are merely sharing just another lay opinion. You appear to base at least some of your distrust of Dr. MacDonald’s findings on the fact that he “has a history of advocacy for a Lyme disease test condemned by the FDA and CDC” and state that this fact alone renders it “pretty clear that this is a man who cannot be trusted.” It appears that you have much greater trust in the veracity and the accuracy of the FDA and CDC than their historical records would support in any arena. In the Lyme disease arena, The CDC openly acknowledges that the Lyme disease test that the FDC and CDC advocate yields up to 70% false negative test results. To put it in the most charitable way- the CDC and the FDC are asking us to trust in an alarmingly inaccurate test while condemning another. The CDC acknowledges that there are at least 300,000 new Lyme Disease cases each year. CDC acknowledges that 20% of those 300,000 new cases of Lyme each year continue to be ill, after treatment. So there are at least 60,000 people who continue to search for answers to why they are ill. Add that number to the hundreds of thousands possible false negative Lyme tests (70% of those tested) and the large number of people who have Lyme disease, but are never tested for Lyme disease and you have a lot of very sick people. It is not a stretch to say that many of them are given incorrect diagnoses of MS or Lewey body dementia or that a person with MS, Lewey body dementia or brain cancer couldn’t also have Lyme disease. I hope you can help shed some light on the basis(es) for your criticisms of Dr. MacDonald’s work and of his veracity.

I see. You want to deflect this from a criticism of MacDonald’s reported results to an attack on me. The only reason you would want to do this is that it is a losing battle to defend his reported results. Can we agree on that?

Dear Mr. Thorson,
From your numerous remarks it is obvious you have not the foggiest idea about Lyme, or scientific testing process. Yet you do spout off, copiously, against anything off the beaten-path of the CDC, and big pharma. I second the wise suggestion by Ms. Roxane Syms above: Either present your scientific credentials, or just shut up already.

very well said!
I have PhD degree in physics, has published a handful of peer reviewed papers, and I’m a lyme disease sufferer.
I feel sorry for Mark not being able to show his credentials or argument rationally and turning to personal attack. Pathetic.

Well, I’ve done some homework, and do agree that Dr. MacDonald is not well accepted by the mainstream medical communtiy. Also, much of his publishing on this kind of subject (as long ago as 2007) was in the journal of Medical Hypotheses – not exactly a journal where proof is required. But, some of his most recent work (finding lyme in the plaque of alzheimer’s) I have found has already been duplicated, here:

That one above is making a big splash in the mainstream medical community.

From this little bit of data, my strong suspicion is that Dr. MacDonald, despite not being well accepted in mainstream medical circles, is on to something. It shouldn’t be long before more replication follows on the subject – this is a pretty significant.

I do find good reason to discuss this, Mark – will you reply with your thoughts on the above?

One of the reasons for considering MacDonald a dubious actor in diagnosis of Lyme disease is that his recommended laboratory, Advanced Laboratory Services, was charging $595 for an unvalidated test that only they offered. Normally, medical ethics precludes charging money for a test, drug, medical device, or other treatment that is experimental.

Whether Alzheimer’s Disease could have any relation to a bacterial infection seems unlikely. This is a heavily researched field, but there is much controversy. The mainstream idea that has dominated the field for over 20 years — the Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis — is gathering growing skepticism. I happen to believe one of the minority hypotheses, that AD begins with endothelial dysfunction.

This bacterial infection hypothesis for AD is new and has many hurdles to clear before being taken seriously. For example, it requires that amyloid plaques are a defense reaction to bacterial infection. If that’s the case, why are the genetic forms of AD mostly mutations which increase production of amyloid beta? Shouldn’t that increase the defenses against these bacteria, hence be protective against AD? Why is the correlation between amyloid plaques and symptoms of AD so poor? Many old people die with brains full of amyloid plaques but never exhibit any symptoms of dementia. If these bacteria do exist in AD brains, they might be a bystander to the actual disease process or simply the aging process itself.

This argument is fraught with logical fallacies. Your inability to fathom the results that are presented does not prove them invalid. Incredulity Given, does not prove them valid either though. Incredulity is not a valid argument. Also, a history of advocacy for Lyme in no way indicates that scientifically collected data are biased. You may question the methods used or care taken in data collection, for instance. His sample size is very small and clearly more research needs to be done with a much larger sampling. But that does not make his results uninteresting. It should possibly be used, with any other valid research, as support for conducting much larger, statistically important research. Just because you think “this man cannot be trusted” is a poor argument for dismissing interesting findings. You yourself stated them to be astounding and extraordinary.

Indeed. Mark’s posts are polluted with the fallacious reasoning of the “evidence-based medicine” “skeptic”. Ex:

“Doesn’t it seem a bit odd . . .”

Based on seeming a bit odd, he arrives at an absolutist conclusion:

” I certainly find his claims utterly unbelievable.”

What these people do with their premature denialisms is they paint themselves into a corner of denial, then when the truth unfolds, their misplaced pride prevents them from admitted that they were wrong. The same attitude gave us denials of conditions such as germ transmission via sloppy surgery, allergies, asthma, MS, chronic Lyme, MCS, etc, etc. These situations do not exist until the evidence is found, but as mentioned earlier, their reputations are staked on their denials, so even as science finds the evidence, these people continue their denials. And they are absolutely tireless. They spend their lives dumping on people who are suffering.

I’m with Mark. Researchers have been looking at the brains of patients Alzheimer’s Disease, VERY CLOSELY, for a very long time. No one is seeing Nematodes. Nematodes may be small, but not under an electron microscope. They are enormous. Yet this guy finds them in three very distinct conditions? Conditions that dont really overlap? So how is he seeing them the curious mind asks. With a FISH DNA probe. An assay that requires meticulous attention to negative controls. Raising the distinct possibility that what this guy thinks he is seeing in fact is artifact, fiction, or perhaps a I see it because I want to see it N-ray fantasy. Throw in the facts that this is published in a bottom feeding journal, by an author with a financial stake in a new test and a history of questionable lyme tests.

This story is sending up red flags that could be seen from space. If your Baloney Detector (Copyright Carl Sagan) is not blowing up, then you are a gullible rube.

That’s because they are looking at the brains of those with Alzheimer’s, not inside the plaques – this is the part that’s new. If you would have actually read the article and done the follow up research, you would have seen this.

And who’s to say that new connections in separate conditions can’t be found? It actually happens. Welcome to science and the medical field.

And while it’s a possibility that he didn’t handle the controls well, you wouldn’t even be going there if you had seen and honestly, openly read the other articles – and had known that there are others that are now able to do the same things and see the same evidence.

And he has NO financial interest. Please, please do your research before you make such comments, otherwise it shows how little you do. He’s not trying to make money, but get more information out in the public and work to help get better testing available – free of charge. So, where’s all that money to be made???

The test standard is lacking. Were no healthy brains tested? Maybe a majority of people have worms, etc. My brain has been screwed up long before I would have been exposed to Lyme ticks and have had ME for decades housebound.

Mark you seem to “know” it all so no reason to discuss this with you. The links between patents, big pharma, and lyme are very well documented as well as the cdc’s lack of oversight and complicit reckless behavior in this reguard. If you want to get on the same page, watch under our skin on netflix. I dont care what the cdc has to say under the guidance it currently is under. Frankly until the golden triangle is broken between pharma and oversight the cdc is little more then a profit enabling organization.

Drexel University has also been exploring this and finding some promising leads in this arena.

The preeminent spirochetael experts of their time, Gabriel Steiner and Lida Mattman were finding spirochetes in very high rates in MS patients they studied. Worth looking into their work.

This is a copy of a comment I wrote:

I’ve been curious about the MS/spirochetal hypothesis (which was the predominant hypothesis in the first half of the 20th century). Here is a snippet of what I came across (in case it can be of interest!).

I stumbled upon this info when I was looking up the research of Ichelson, it is actually an interesting story. From a review by Mark Jorge a biomedical scientist in regards to MS and spirochetes:

“Certain similarities between MS and known spirochaetal diseases led to the hypothesis, popular between 1909 and the 1950s, that MS might be caused by these microbes. The driving force for this hypothesis came from Germany,12,13 where spirochaetal organisms had been seen in CNS tissue using silver stains. Sadly, the advent of Nazism and the cataclysm of World War II resulted in the disappearance of both researchers and their work after 1935. Gabriel Steiner, one of the few researchers who remained, emigrated to America after the war and continued his work on spirochaetes until 1954.14

Acceptance of the spirochaetal hypothesis continued until 1957 when Ichelson published an ill-fated paper15 in support of the theory, only to retract her findings and admit that her distilled water had been contaminated with spirochaetal organisms. In a good example of throwing the baby out with the bath water, the subsequent uproar saw not only Ichelson’s reputation but also the credibility of the spirochaetal hypothesis destroyed.

The long-term damage was devastating for spirochaetal research, with the influential MS Society refusing to fund further work, which discouraged other bodies from supporting research, even to the present day.”

Ichelson’s mistake basically destroyed this whole angle of investigation, destroyed its institutional credibility, even though it had been promising and worthy of further pursuits. The MS foundations were embarrassed, so funding dried up and there weren’t really any researchers to take up Steiner’s mantle (except for Lida Mattman and possibly a few others, but they remained on the so called fringes I suppose). I had always presupposed that the reason the MS/pathogen (spirochete) hypothesis disappeared was that new research came about and directly refuted this hypothesis. But as far as I know, the hypothesis has never been refuted by research. Considering the work of the preeminent spirochete experts of their time like Gabriel Steiner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Steiner) and Lida Mattman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lida_Holmes_Mattman), I think it is important to keep pursuing this angle and fully examining and vetting it. We have not invested enough resources to answer these questions.

I think we’re eventually going to get much more fully formed answers on the spirochetal/pathogen hypothesis in regards to MS and other neuro conditions (whether it is yay or nay or a mix in between I can’t say). The problem is culturing spirochetes is pretty hard and a pain, you have to be really looking for them and know what you’re doing, and in the current research world there aren’t a lot of people working and specialized in this field (unlike pre-World War II Germany which had the greatest spirochete experts). Plus, given the toxic and highly politicized atmosphere surrounding research of the borrelioses in the United States, many researchers shy away from studying these pathogens, which is a complete shame.
But even if spirochetal infections are involved to some degree in some of these conditions, I doubt they will be the only pathogens in the mix. If the microbial angle plays some role it will likely be a spectrum and mix of microbes that are working in combination, vibing off each other, helping drive the inflammatory pathways in genetically susceptible hosts.

If Dr. MacDonald is correct, his findings should be fairly easy to replicate. Independent researchers could request CSF and brain tissue samples from various tissue banks for neurodegenerative diseases and examine them under a microscope to see if nematodes are present. If nematodes are present, they could use DNA imaging or PCR to confirm the presence of Borrelia spirochetes.

This isn’t a real scientific paper published in a real scientific journal — it’s an OMICS journal. OMICS journals are fake scientific journals in which anyone can publish any junk if they pay the publication fee. No reputable scientists publish in an OMICS journal, but some quack scientists do. The rest are people trying to fatten their resume to get jobs.

Swiss researchers have been published in the Lancet with these exact same findings a few years ago. Every MS brain autopsy was positive, I believe they are well on the way in treating “Live” M.S patients to find a treatment for the spirochaetal diseases associated with their presence.

My 12 year old daughter only tested positive for Lymes with an Igenx test. She was treated but stopped walking. This is very interesting to me as the struggle to watch her be in a wheelchair is real. Neurological deficiency with motor skill is affected. I have been looking everywhere for help in the Pittsburgh area but the Drs diagnosis is depression. It is just crazy.

Dr Charles ray Jones is the leading pediatric Dr in lyme disease (he is in Ct)…..I have spoken to many parents who are dealing with the same. Their children have lost the ability to walk…not only is lyme and Co infections involved but usually mold or something of that sort. Get a humidity detector (they are less than $20 @ u r local hardware store) monitor the humidity. At first mine was ok. A little later it was high a lot which means u have to much moisture in the air..this could be from numerous things like a leaking pipe or toilet, it is possible to be from gutters not being cleaned out, etc. High humidity can cause a lot of problems. How long was ur daughter treated for?

Lyme has ruined my life as well. The doctors who don’t take the time to study lyme and coinfections won’t have jobs soon. It’s only a matter of time before we all have it. I’m donating my body to lyme research. The only reason Dr. MACDONALD is the only DR. Finding these things is because he’s the ONLY Dr. Researching autopsies. These tests can’t be done on living people. Perhaps you should view the photos that go with the research he’s done. CDC has refused to believe this disease is going to take down the population. Or should I say they are k epping a “secret.”

Christi H. I couldnt have said it better myself!! You took the words right out of my mouth! Mark clearly has never dealt with Lyme!! Its people like you, Mark, that hold the research back and keep the thousands of people that have been diagnosed farther from getting help early on!! I went a year without a diagnosis and I consider myself one of the lucky ones, because there have been people that have gone on for years without one! I went to the University hospital in my state and was told it was a “physical manifestation of my depression.” They left me hanging, making me feel like I was crazy when there was clearly something wrong with me, but all of my tests came back fine. There are so many of us out there, many who still dont know they have it. And cant afford to get the testing done to see if they do. Please support the research, no matter how ‘incredible’ the results seem because it could save so many lives someday!!!

I got tic bite disease in Zambia several times in the period 1989-90 and wonder if the same or similar spirochetes are at play. I took several doses of antibiotics but the after effects have continued to linger. Anyone know if they are related?

I too am being treated with the Shoemaker Protocol for mold, Chronic Lyme, CIRS. I am a nurse, my husband a physician. I have now lived with a misdiagnosis for 18 years, until now.

I saw a TV report a couple of weeks ago where a student at Univ of Virginia has developed an accurate urine test to detect Lyme. She became interested in it as several family members have Lyme.

In regards to the comment related to vaccines & autism. My own opinion is that something in the vaccines causes a gene mutation to activate. When you tax an immune system with numerous vaccines given at the same time, if you happen to have mutations which when “turned on” do not allow you to handle toxins, stimulate proteins or turn off proteins needed for the brain then you have the perfect storm. Autism is all too common. Just my opinion.

Be thankful you Lyme sufferers who live in America – I believe the Australian government don’t even recognise Lyme as a disease.
A young sufferer I am aware of had to have tests carried out in the US & travel to Switzerland for treatment

I do believe that this Dr may be on to something with worms. But there are many different established central nervous system diseases associated with many different types of nematodes.
The vectors are ticks, raccoons, opossum, dogs, cats, dirt etc etc.
What this dr is suggesting is similar to me suggesting all car crashes are caused by texting and driving. When we know there are many other types of crashes that result from distraction ,impairment ,road conditions, mechanical failure, etc.

What we know is there is a crash. Was it driver error. Road conditions, or type of car or tire that is prone to certain mechanical failure. Or a combination more than one.

My pediatrician wrote a book in it he said “genetics load the gun, the environment pulls the trigger”

An above referenced comment spoke of a new Urine Lyme test, the Nanotrap. It was done done by a student at the University of Va but instead George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Two years ago I went to the first presentation of that test and at that time it could only detect an infection where one had been exposed in the past two weeks. Two years later and it now can show if Lyme has ever been present in the body. The test is $400, data is being collected and hopefully will lead to approval. I am awaiting results on my 23 year old son. My 26 year old was treated for a yesr and is doing very well, I am doing Shoemaker protocol for Lyme, Mold and CIRS.

If it’s an unapproved test, medical ethics would preclude charging any money for it at all. No ethical practitioner or institution charges money for a test, drug, medical device, or treatment which is not FDA approved. If they are charging $400 for a test which is not FDA approved, they are quacks. You should not waste money on these phony tests.

I was told for years I had fibromyalgia and thyroid issues. After 22 years of pain, depression, weigh gain, surgeries, misdiagnosis, getting every pain killer on the market and then being thrown out of numerous doctors offices I have JUST learned it was Lyme this whole time. Now finding a doctor that isnt just a cash only scam is proving extremely difficult. I was just on antibiotics for 3 months and had no improvement. I’m happy to know now that its not just in my head like I was accused of most my life. But I still feel like there’s no help for me and this is just the cards I’ve been dealt. 22 years of being beaten down by doctors and our system…and I don’t know if I have enough energy to keep fighting anymore.

Jessa, my story is very similar to yours – 25 years diagnosed with fibro, with low thyroid and many other symptoms. When I found out it was Lyme, I began treating and finding treatments that worked for me. We’re all different and need to find what works. Don’t give up now! You’re just at the beginning of an opportunity to turn your symptoms around. I suggest that you sign up at Lymenet dot org and discuss your situation in the Medical Questions and/or General Support section. There are lots of experienced folks there. You can also post in the Seeking A Doctor section for referrals to Lyme-literate doctors and people will send you private messages. With the right kinds of treatment, you will feel better!

So Mark, based on the fact that 100% of the samples from the above study had Nematode / Burgdorfi DNA, it should be a realative easy study to prove or refute. However, the pervasive approach of the current medical profession of “Death by Diagnosis” do to the fear based medicine practiced in the USA, is not acceptable. “We can not treat until we have a definitive diagnosis or we will get sued”. One thing is for sure, Tick borne diseases are far more prevelant than anyone ever believed, there are more of them to be discovered (In less than 40 years we have gone from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, to Erhlichia, to Anaplasmosis, to Lyme Diseases that are Tick Born. Only an Ostrich would keep their head in the dirt and say “no it is not possible”. With 100% positive results this should be easy to scientifically prove or refute. PLEASE do NOT use the forever excuse of “we do not have adequate testing to prove or refute this paper THEREFORE it can not be TRUE. Take off your blindfold and go do your research. Just think, what if “your scientific research” proved that 30% of those patients were infected with nematodes and or Tick born diseases!! You just changed 30% of the MS, Alzhmehrs, Brain Tumors patients in America for the better.

You are correct. If this is a test with 100% specificity for the claimed diseases, it should be very easy to confirm its validity. Not only that, but if even one of the claimed conditions — for example, multiple sclerosis — were confirmed to be caused by these Borrelia-infected nematodes, that would be very worthy of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Elsewhere, this guy claims that Borrelia also causes Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s not necessary for MacDonald to show all of these diseases are caused by Borrelia — just show that even one of them like MS or AD is caused by these spirochetes and he should get that Nobel Prize.

That’s not going to happen. It’s totally ludicrous to think all of these diseases are caused by Borrelia. If they were, then antibiotic therapy would be highly effective if not completely curative for these diseases. Many people with MS and AD are treated with antibiotics for unrelated bacterial infections. If antibiotics were effective or curative, that most certainly would have been noticed by now. There would be case reports of people whose disease was arrested or reversed after antibiotic treatment, and there would be statistical analyses that would show a positive correlation between antibiotic treatment and disease regression. Insurance companies pay an enormous amount to treat these diseases, and they certainly would not pass up the chance to pick up hundred dollar bills lying on the sidewalk. There is no possibility that MacDonald’s claims are honest and correct.

So I take it neither of you has actually studied much about the testing? The testing relies on antibodies – Lyme inhibits the immune system so that it can’t produce those antibodies. Lyme also can evade many of the body’s own defenses, plus hides out in tissues, bones, organs, the brain and biofilms, plus it can go into a cyst form to avoid being attacked or treated, besides not being able to be tested for. Before you start complaining about us saying we don’t have adequate testing, you should really do more research, as there is plenty out there showing these things. Yes, real, live research.

In these cases of treating people with MS for various infections the dosages of ABX were not high enough to make a hit. Certain antibiotics in high dosages is what’s important and can hit the Borrelia. Combination antibiotics for long term is what works. THe NY Times had an article on this. Also Mark, a lot of what you dish out is sanctimonious crap and ignores the obvious suffering of these people. Once diagnosed and treated with high dose combo ABX by an ILADS Doctor people do get better and lead more productive lives.

I’m with Mark. He continues to ask questions, reasonable questions, deliberative questions…weighing what is an agreed ‘known’ against what is only theorized. Asking…who says, to whom, and maybe why? And just maybe those suffering are all to eager to embrace this “new” finding, rather then looking into those findings and continuing to question and debate in order to arrive at solid information. EVERYTHING remains questionable until you can arrive at an unconditioned ‘known’. What I know as an unconditioned fact, is that what is known is far outweighed by what is not yet known.

Mark Thompson, see the film “Vaxxed” (and no, it is not an anti vax documentary in any way) and it will tell you why I don’t really care what the CDC says at this moment. On the comment that if his testing methods and findings, as a result of using his own testing method, would be worthy of a Nobel prize, well, it does take time and much recognition before a person is considered for a Nobel prize. And I’ll remind you of the case of the two men who discovered h.pylori as the cause of stomach ulcers rather than stress and acidic foods, which we once thought. It took one of them literally infecting h.pylori in himself and then treating when ulcers began. They were laughed at and ostracized by their medical peers. But a dramatic action like that had to be taken to once and for all prove themselves. And guess what? they earned a Nobel prize a just few years back. This convincing of their peers and our society took about a decade and the desperate act of infecting one of them. Early science outside of our traditional thinking always get poo pooed at first. But eventually, accepted. Although, typically in very slow motion. And so what if he developed the test to complete his hypothesis and present real solid data. That’s what a good scientist does. If the ways and means are not yet developed to prove their theories, they sometimes have to make the ways and means themselves. Lastly, I am in full agreement with you the antibiotics comments. But know this: science continues to emerge showing infection and inflammation a root to nearly all diseases/conditions from bulging discs in the spine to brain diseases like MS, ALS, PARKINSON’s etc . Also, regarding Dr Wakefield: I watched his depositions and presentations. Not once did he say vaccines are directly related to autism. He said he found a link between the vaccination given at 12-18 months to the sudden onset of autistic symptoms and he recommended single doses instead of combined doses and to delay the shot until after age two-four to help avoid these autistic events. And in the film, you will see where a CDC dr, a whistle blower, showed that the CDC suppressed, altered and elimantied many of the exact findings Dr Wakefield discovered, in fact, He was and is not a quack. So really investigate all sides in this manner of Dr MacDonald more in depth before you make these assumptions

Under the microscope, in the cerebral cortex of the human brain are numerous Lewy Bodies. …

Herein are presented two autopsy cases of DCLBD Dementia in human patients in their seventh decade of life. …

“Herein we present that the Lewy Bodies in DCLBD are in addition immunoreacitve for Borrelia burgdorferi proteins by Immunohistochemistry (IHC) studies using rabbit antibodies against whole cell lysates of pure cultures of Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes…

“Further, we demonstrate the hybridization of DNA probes specific for the DNA of Borrelia burgdorferi, by Fluorescence In Situ DNA Hybridization (FISH) …

“These two data sets establish that a heretofore un-imagined linkage exists between chronic (Tertiary) neuroborreliosis in the human brain and the development of Diffuse Cortical Lewy body Dementia…”

4. Nematode worms are endowed with their own neurons and their own Glial cells

5. Synuclein proteins (but not necessarily the toxic variant of Alpha synuclein) are incumbent in Synaptic Structure, and these are located between the Dendritic/Synaptic button apparatus and the Nucleus of the neuron

6. Borrelia burgdorferi is an EndoSymbiont microbe which dwells inside of the bodies of select nematode worms, larvae, and worm eggs too.

7. Borrelia burgdorferi might be endowed with a protein which is immune-reactive to the toxic variant of Alpha Synuclein or Borrelia spirochetes may absorb this protein or Borrelia spriochetes may absorb this protein

8. Borrelia penetrates the cell membrane of neuronal cells and lives inside of these neurons.

9. Borrelia spirochetes are fully capable of killing neurons from the INSIDE/out.

10. Borrelia spirochetes dwelling as Endosymbionts inside Parasitic nematodes are protected by the worms from killing by antibiotics.

Upon death of the worm of even during the lifetime of the worm, the borrelia spirochetes may be liberated from their Worm SANCTUARY and live in the human ExtraCellular fluid domain.

Exceutive Summary:

Nematode parasites in human brain have never been considered in the pathology of any neurodegenerative disease.

Jack had NEVER been diagnosed with either Borrelia/lyme or Lewy body dementia. He was misdiagnosed for 35 yrs. for his lyme/bartonella!!

I also was misdiagnosed for 35 yrs. of my 47.5 yrs. with chronic lyme disease; he was bitten 10 yrs. later than me.

Neither of us saw an embedded tick with blood. We had NO BULLS-EYE RASH or any type of rash!

Jack was diagnosed with essential tremor, then later Parkison’s for 5+ years, and later dementia.

Mark, it is apparent you came here only to “attack” Dr. MacDonald’s work.

Your reference to the quackwatch site; well, naturally you would recommend that since it’s apparent you contribute there 😉

When asked to present your medical credentials; you replied you would just be attacked, and did NOT reply.

So it’s better to attack then to be attacked right? WRONG!

Alan provided me SCIENTIFIC FACTS over the wrong diagnosis several drs. gave us over the last 35 yrs. of Jack’s life.

I now have peace of mind knowing this vs. guessing what he might have had.

I’m trying to get Jack’s death certificate amended showing Alan’s scientific evidence he found on Borrelia/Lyme and Lewy body dementia contributing to his death vs. lung cancer on there which he was diagnosed with lung and liver cancer 2 NIGHTS prior to his untimely death.

Yes, unless you are looking specifically for certain things, they can and will be overlooked.

Yes, Alan has been the only pathologist doing this type of work.

He had done the LABOR FREE; charges only for the materials used doing the various blood slides.

Can YOU say that Mark that you work for NOTHING in return? Nope; didn’t think so 😉

BettyG, Iowa
widow/chronic lyme/lewy body dementia activist

now, i know you will ATTACK ME, THE WIDOW, Mark; so I do NOT plan on replying to you anymore; gains nothing at all.

How Many Cases of the disease which bears Alzheimer’s name
Were published by Dr Alois Alzheimer himself ( without any Peer Review )
While he was still alive?
Answer- only 1 case of Auguste D. As a single case report …
And another single Case study published by Dr Alzheimer just before his premature death from Heart Disease.
Naysayers such as the pseudonymous “Thorsen” still have the opportunity
To write to the Original medical Journal that supported Dr.Alzheimer by publishing his single case reports.
What would our Correspondent ” Thorsen” ( fake name). Write in his
Vituperative mind set ….
” Perhaps” …. ” …single case studies which are not VALIDATED BY OTHERS … ARE NEVER Never Never …to be trusted.. Dr. Alzheimer is NOT TO BE TRUSTED..”

Go straightway to the Message Boards ” Dr. Thorsen” (sic) and
Tell All the World that Dr. Alois Alzheimer …should never be trusted..”

Just in case Dr MacDonald’s post above has not already silenced “Mark Thorson” with his post above, I will do my part as well…..

I am a Chronic Lyme Disease patient myself, that was bounced from specialist to specialist for years, only to be misdiagnosed and treated for 4 years by a top Boston Neurologist as having (Lewis Sumner Syndrome). My PCP Dr. had no idea what Lewis Sumner Syndrome was, but she was an understudy of a local Lyme Dr, and she continually compared my (Lewis Sumner Syndrome) symptoms with Lyme disease symptoms. After 4 years of getting progressively worse with my LSS treatments, she finally convinced me to pursue more detailed Lyme disease testing and treatment by a top Lyme literate doctor. After testing positive for both Borrelia Burgdorferi, Borrelia Hermsii, as well as several other co-infections, I struggled through 2 long years of Lyme treatment, but have vastly improved.

I am a reasonable person that understands why people would have an opposing stance on the whole “Chronic Lyme” theory, and claim it is quack research etc. Just my experiences alone with medical specialists that were so uneducated in regards to Lyme disease, help me understand how widespread the misinformation is.

I have gone through so many years of reading internet blogs, forums, newsletters, medical journals and so on, to do the best job I could at researching, self-educating, and understanding my disease.

The one thing that I continually noticed in online forums, were the anonymous users similar to “Mark Thorson”. Anonymous posters that are quick to point out any discrepancy that will bolster their stance on a subject, and quick to redirect or ignore anything that may negate their stance….These people (Mark Thorsons) are known as “Internet Trolls”. Since Mark Thorson’s most common factual references in his posts are from the very reliable Wikipedia, I will include the Wikipedia definition for “Internet Troll”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

A troll (internet), is someone who tries to harass by posting messages on the internet.[1] The purpose is to excite strong emotion in an online community.[2] This is to get a reaction from other online users,[2] or to cause problems.[3]
Some users do it to be humorous when they know others will be angry. The best solution is to ignore trolls and to not give them the attention they want. This has become known as “don’t feed the trolls”.

So for the rest of posters in this thread, especially any of the people that have experienced firsthand what this terrible disease can do, “don’t feed the trolls (Mark Thorson)”. He has no other motive, than to be a contrarian, and get a rise out of others that are suffering. Do any of you actually think he actually cares about Lyme Disease patients, and Lyme research? Does anyone actually think he cares so much about all of the suffering Lyme patients, that he feels the necessity to “save” us from this so called “quack” research that Dr MacDonald is accomplishing? Hopefully others can see that Mark Thorson is doing nothing more than “trolling”, and will simply ignore him.

This is life or death for many of us. You can be as skeptical as you want about Dr Alan MacDonalds research. You can be an anonymous internet forum user that has the convenient “contrarian” (Mark Thorson) opinion to everything that Dr. MacDonald has published, but at least do your research somewhere other than Wikipedia to attempt to dispute one of the few Doctors that are actually trying to make a difference here. His research is finally gaining notoriety and acceptance as similar testing is being replicated, but unfortunately the CDC and the Insurance companies will continue to do their part to make life difficult for anyone and anything Lyme related, and force innocent patients like myself to pay $50k out of pocket, in order to be properly treated.

Thank you Dr MacDonald, for your continued research and dedication to helping us understand, and fight this ugly disease.

Instead of responding substantively to my criticism, you are attempting to deflect this to an attack on me. Can’t we just stick to the facts? a) Macdonald is reporting an extraordinary result, bordering on the preposterous, b) Macdonald has in the past supported an expensive unapproved Lyme test which provoked a highly unusual warning from the FDA and CDC, and c) Macdonald’s publications are in junk journals like Medical Hypotheses and a pay-to-play OMICS journal. These all should raise serious doubts about his reliability. My objection is that there is a large industry of “Lyme specialists” and “Lyme literate doctors” who are peddling dubious tests and therapies to people who are being hoodwinked about the nature of their disease. I don’t doubt that these people are suffering, but being sold a false diagnosis and false treatment at high prices does not do these people a service. It harms them, and the knaves who inflict this harm should be stopped. You say you have spent $50K. You must understand that having spent so much you now have a great investment in believing the Lyme industry. If you were to allow doubts, that would also open the possibility that your $50K was money wasted. It’s easier to avoid that thought than to think critically.

Mark Thorson, you ask to stick to the “facts”, but what you have provided here is not “facts” but an offensive and possibly legally actionable rant which betrays the fact that you have no scientific or medical credentials whatsoever.

A brief glance at Google reveals that you, Mark Thorson, are a well-known corporate p-r man, a “liar-for-hire” closely linked with Quackwatch, which is widely recognised as a front for big Pharma and related industries.

Is it plausible that you are an “expert” in topics as diverse as the safety or otherwise of breast implants, edible algae and Multiple Sclerosis? No, you are an expert in none of these. I note that the manufacturer of a natural health product has successfully sued you for claiming, without basis, that it contained a dangerous toxin, and you were forced to make a public retraction.

I don’t have time right now to deal with all your myriad falsehoods, but for now, I’ll deal with just one – the nonsensical claim that because Dr. MacDonald got 100% positives for borrelia -plus-parasitic nematodes in small series of brain tissue samples in neurodegenerative diseases, this is somehow “preposterous”.

Tell me, Mark Thorson, do you consider it preposterous that Nobel Prize winners Marshall and Warren found 100% of a small sample of patients with duodenal ulcer positive for H. pylori (13 out of 13 patients) on biopsy? Fortunately, the medical world does not find it “preposterous”.

It is tragic that the pharmaceutical giants held up the H. pylori discovery for more than a decade, unwilling to trade their multi-billions annual profit from palliative H2 receptor antagonists for an anti-bacterial therapy that could cure patients, but brought little or no profits.

No doubt they must have hired many lobbyists and liars-for-hire to successfully keep this crucial knowledge hidden from the medical profession for so many years. Countless people suffered debilitating ulcers, potentially fatal complications such as haemorrhage, and peritonitis, and lethal gastric carcinoma as a result of their lies.

Marshall and Warren’s discovery was suppressed in the 1980s. Fortunately, today we have the Internet, which makes it harder for morally challenged information prositutes such as yourself, Mark Thorson, to do your “job”.

Mark Thorson, you ask to stick to the “facts”, but what you have provided here is not “facts” but an offensive and possibly legally actionable rant which betrays the fact that you have no scientific or medical credentials whatsoever.

Once again, deflect to criticizing the critic, not the criticism. Pull the spotlight off the criticism. Why is that? It’s because the quackery cannot withstand fact-based scrutiny. Nothing you say can make an OMICS journal a respectable scientific journal. Nothing you can say erases the fact that MacDonald was promoting an expensive test for Lyme disease that provoked a highly unusual warning from the CDC and FDA.

A brief glance at Google reveals that you, Mark Thorson, are a well-known corporate p-r man, a “liar-for-hire” closely linked with Quackwatch, which is widely recognised as a front for big Pharma and related industries.

Now you’ve trespassed into nutcase fantasyland. Nobody has ever paid me a penny for posting anything. But you are so hard and determined that your fantasies are reality that you cannot accept that a well-informed, educated person could find your fantasies to be wrong. The only reality you can accept is I’m being paid by Big Pharma or the AMA or some other loony conspiracy theory. It’s not true, but there’s nothing I can say which will dissuade you from your wrong, hardened beliefs.

That’s not a research paper. It’s a letter to the editor. I suppose it’s somewhat higher status than a letter to the New York Times, but not greatly so. In the 30 years hence, one would think there would be followup research for something as important as the cause of dementia, if it wasn’t just a pile of malarkey.

So I take it you don’t understand the word ‘systemic’? It means not limited to one area of the body, and that happens to include the brain.

Not only that, here’s some real research you missed, unless you don’t believe that the ‘Oxford Journal, Clinical Infectious Diseases’ doesn’t count either. If that’s the case, maybe we should just throw out all of their research on every thing they’ve done?
“this infection will involve the parenchyma of the spinal cord (myelitis) or brain (encephalitis).”http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/58/9/1267.full

Or how about “Neurology” – the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology?
“Borrelia burgdorferi infection of the brain”
” Immune sera from both mice and humans infected with B burgdorferi were unable to completely kill the organism by complement-mediated cytotoxicity. These data demonstrate that B burgdorferi infects the brain of experimental animals, and is resistant to immune sera in vitro but sensitive to prolonged treatment with antibiotics.”http://www.neurology.org/content/40/10/1535.short

Still not convinced? That’s fine, there are actually a lot more references I can post.

American Journal of Neuroradiology:
“Borrelia species are very difficult to culture as exemplified by individual case reports of rare strokelike presentations, wherein brain biopsies merely demonstrated a nonspecific perivascular or vasculitic lymphocytic inflammation.48 In the appropriate clinical and geographic setting, rare instances of LNB vasculitis with ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intracerebral hemorrhage have been reported.48,68–75 Single-photon emission CT may provide indirect manifestations of LNB antibiotic-reversible frontal hypoperfusion.”

“There is an overlap in the CNS MR imaging appearance of LNB and MS; however, unlike MS, cervical cord pathology and occult brain involvement in normal-appearing white matter are infrequent findings in patients with LNB.”

Let’s not forget the ‘American Society for Microbiology’:
“Borrelia burgdorferi, Host-Derived Proteases, and the Blood-Brain Barrier”
“Neurological manifestations of Lyme disease in humans are attributed in part to penetration of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and invasion of the central nervous system (CNS) by Borrelia burgdorferi. However, how the spirochetes cross the BBB remains an unresolved issue. ”

Or ‘The Journal of Clinical Investigation’:
” Within days to weeks after disease onset, B. burgdorferi often disseminates widely. During this period, the spirochete has been recovered from blood and cerebrospinal fluid (S7, S36, S37 ), and it has been seen in small numbers in specimens of myocardium, retina, muscle, bone, spleen, liver, meninges, and brain (45). ”

The possibility of an infectious etiology for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been repeatedly postulated over the past three decades.
We provide the first meta-analysis to address the relationship between bacterial infection and AD. Studies examining the association between AD and spirochetal bacteria or Chlamydophila pneumoniae (Cpn) were identified through a systematic search of the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, and Google Scholar.

We found over a ten-fold increased occurrence of AD when there is detectable evidence of spirochetal infection (OR: 10.61; 95% CI: 3.38-33.29) and over a four-fold increased occurrence of AD in a conservative risk estimate (OR: 4.45; 95% CI: 2.33-8.52).

We found over a five-fold increased occurrence of AD with Cpn infection (OR: 5.66; 95% CI: 1.83-17.51).
This study shows a strongly positive association between bacterial infection and AD.
Further detailed investigation of the role of bacterial infection is warranted.
KEYWORDS:

Previous studies suggested that the overall burden of prior infections contributes to cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
In the present study, the association between infectious burden (IB) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was examined.
METHODS:

Wow Mark Thorsen, full marks for patience. Maybe the vitriol here is the clearest indication of Lyme affecting the brain… As far as the ‘research’ goes, wouldn’t the easy thing to do be to autopsy some brains where the deceased had no history of MS, dementia, Lyme etc. and see if the parasites and nematodes are as prevalent in the general population as in those with mental disease? I mean I bet those poor people in his tests also showed previous infection with various herpes viruses etc. since many people have had warts on their hands and chicken pox in childhood. Doesn’t mean those viruses play a part in MS, cancer and so forth. Picking 2 common things and connecting them is not science people! BTW I myself got sick and tested pos for Lyme in 2002 short term oral doxy failed repeatedly to clear the infection as I threw a lot of it up. my tests turned negative and I was taken off antibiotics and almost died from complications as it rampaged here and there in my body, joints, nerves, retina, ear, heart as well as brain. I had auditory hallucinations, memory problems and walked with a cane for a year until I learned to adapt to the numbness in my right foot and hand. I was diagnosed with Chronic fatigue after my tests went negative and no other cause of symptoms could be found. I spent the next 8 years having flu twice a week. Then I had doxy for suspected PID and all ‘Chronic fatigue’ symptoms cleared briefly(except pelvic pain). Lyme returned to the table when I pointed out that chronic fatigue is viral and should not respond to antibiotics (notice the science there people?) I had IV doxy for several weeks via PIC line to cross the blood brain barrier. Immediate recovery, no relapse going on 6 years now, although I still have symptoms in some previously damaged areas from time to time. I did have cancer after I got better, no family history or risk factors. of course I was bummed but people I am here to tell you there is no conspiracy, you can get better but if you’ve been sick a long time don’t expect your body to rebound to how you were 10 yrs ago. Maybe you will be susceptible to cancer, infection, stress because you’ve had a serious infection that has stressed your body. Don’t add to that by torturing your mind. Move on and live. Stop listening to even well meaning snake oil salesmen selling pseudoscience. Learn some real science and statistics and grasp what Mr. Thorsen is trying to help you understand. Get well and let that nuttiness fade away, I know it can happen. Good Luck.

Statistics and epidemiology are not hard research science. One of the reasons there are so many very sick Lyme people is because when they asked doctors to treat them for Lyme the doctors denied them based on”probability.” Epidemiology comes second to what you can see with your own eyes under a microscope.

It seems to me that if a person is suffering from dementia *and has worms in his brain*, perhaps such a person should attempt to get rid of them, on the off chance they might have something to do with his condition.

Mark Thorson–it used to be thought that ulcers were caused by stress or certain foods. Now we know that most ulcers are caused by H. pylori bacteria. I am sure a lot of people scoffed when that discovery was made.

Until you have had Lyme (and I pray you never get it) you will not understand.

Dr. Steven Phillips has said he has no idea why these things are not on the front page of the New York Times. If there is any possibility at all that these findings are true and replicable then there should be a massive swarm of researchers on it RIGHT NOW. I don’t understand why that is not the case.

The sick don’t have another 20 years to wait for real scientists to replace the dogmatists with cushy careers. One thing that Lyme will teach you is that “medicine” is essentially the Emerald Palace, at the end of the Yellow Brick Road, with various Wizards inside.

If this is NOT TRUE then someone from Oz better come along here pretty quick and prove it.

“To verify the hypothesis that several types of spirochetes may be involved in AD, 147 AD cases and 37 controls were analyzed using neutral techniques, which recognize all types of spirochetes.

In an initial study, helically shaped microorganisms were observed in 14 AD cases in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), blood and cerebral cortex [70]. They were isolated from the cerebral cortex, and cultivated from the blood in a modified Noguchi medium, which enables the cultivation of anaerobic spirochetes.

They were ABSENT in age-matched controls, which were WITHOUT any AD-type cortical changes [70].

In three AD cases, spirochetes were also cultivated from the cerebral cortex in a synthetic Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly II (BSK II) medium [70].

Further scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy analyses defined that these helically shaped microorganisms possess endoflagella and taxonomically belong to the order Spirochaetales [80]. Spirochetes were detected in the brains of 8 AD patients derived from another laboratory and in the blood of 5 living patients with AD-type dementia [81].

In addition to dark field, atomic force, electron and immune-electron microscopy analyses, immunohistochemical detection of spirochetes was also performed using spirochete and bacterial peptidoglycan (PGN) specific antibodies, and by using the nonspecific DNA marker 4′,6-Diamidine-2′-phenylindole dihydrochloride (DAPI) and species-specific DNA as revealed by in situ hybridization (ISH) [70,80-86].

PGN is the building block of the cell wall of virtually all Eubacteria, including spirochetes, however, Mycoplasma and Chlamydia, which lack bacterial cell wall, do not show detectable PGN [87,88].

The morphology of helically shaped microorganism detected by spirochete or PGN specific antibodies is identical [compare Fig. seven G and H of reference 89]. PGN-immunoreactive helically shaped spirochetes were detected in the brains in 32 definite AD cases and in 12 cases with mild or moderate AD-type cortical changes [87,88].

Spirochetes were observed in senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, curly fibers and in the wall of cortical or leptomeningeal arteries exhibiting amyloid deposits [70,80-82]. Spirochete and PGN specific antigens were co-localized with Aβ [83,85].

Control brains without AD-type cortical changes were NEGATIVE [70,83-85]”

And this U.S. study compared 15 AD brains against 15 controls, and didn’t find Borrelia in any of them. Just to be sure, they also injected 18 guinea pigs with Borrelia and compared against 14 control guinea pigs. Their test was 100% accurate in identifying the brains from the injected guinea pigs. Thier test method was especially good because it is sensitive to a wide variety of Borrrelia species.http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/182/3/1006.full.pdf

Take a really good look at this map. It shows the prevalence of Lyme Disease in the U.S. Note that it’s highly concentrated in New England, with a strong but lesser prevalence in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Hardly any in the Deep South, the West, Alaska, or Hawaii.http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/maps.html

Now look at this map. It shows the prevalence of dementia in the U.S. About 70% of all dementia is Alzheimer’s Disease, so basically, this is a map of Alzheimer’s.http://jpubhealth.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/10/20/pubmed.fdu080/F1.expansion.html
If Lyme caused AD, you’d expect this map to be just like the other one. It’s not. The hottest part of this map is the Deep South. The West, Alaska, and Hawaii do not escape unscathed. And Minnesota is as cold as its weather. These maps don’t look anything alike. The notion that Lyme causes AD is not just wrong — it’s stupidly wrong.

And here’s one more map to look at. It’s the prevalence of obesity. It’s not a perfect fit, but it’s a whole lot better fit than the map for Lyme disease. There is a known significant correlation between type II diabetes and Alzheimer’s, so the similarity of the obesity map to the AD map should not be a surprise. I haven’t found a map for type II diabetes yet.

Have a look at the criteria for a diagnosis of Lyme disease. Did it follow the ILADS guidelines, or the IDSA guidelines?

I was interested in this paper too – In one paragraph it said ‘ The pair found, in fact, that the 13 states with the highest incidence of Lyme disease actually reported the lowest number of
deaths due to Alzheimer’s. Furthermore, seven of the states with high incidences of Alzheimer’s deaths were among the
13 states with the lowest incidence of Lyme disease. Vermont was the only state that reported a high incidence of both diseases.’ (This then was an inverse correlation.)

Then it said ‘“Statistical analyses revealed a complete lack of correlation between the two diseases, strongly suggesting that Lyme disease could not be the cause Alzheimer’s,” O’Day said.’

This shows that Professor O’Day doesn’t know the difference between inverse correlation and no correlation. Worrying. Perhaps the failure in diagnosing Lyme disease in certain states ensured that Borrelia went on to cause Alzheimer’s. Same disease, with different names. There is probably the same reverse correlation between Lyme Disease and Borreliosis. Does this prove that Borrelia don’t cause Lyme Disease?

Thorson, rather than quoting the flawed and poor quality studies that you have, why don’t you look at the first abstract in the list posted by Betty G above. It is a ** meta-analysis**. I know you don’t understand that word, but you can try a dictionary.

The meta-analysis found this:

“We provide the first meta-analysis to address the relationship between bacterial infection and AD. Studies examining the association between AD and spirochetal bacteria or Chlamydophila pneumoniae (Cpn) were identified through a systematic search of the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, and Google Scholar.

We found over a ten-fold increased occurrence of AD when there is detectable evidence of spirochetal infection (OR: 10.61; 95% CI: 3.38-33.29) and over a four-fold increased occurrence of AD in a conservative risk estimate (OR: 4.45; 95% CI: 2.33-8.52).

We found over a five-fold increased occurrence of AD with Cpn infection (OR: 5.66; 95% CI: 1.83-17.51).
This study shows a strongly positive association between bacterial infection and AD.”

As for the paper supposedly finding no correlation between dementia and Borreliosis prevalence, anyone who is the slightest bit literate in dementia studies would laugh at that paper.

It’s VERY WELL KNOWN that diagnosis of Alzheimers has been pitifully inaccurate for decades – the criteria are currently being re-written for precisely that reason. There are national and even global initiatives in progress to encourage doctors to diagnose the disease, as very often patients lived and died without ever being told they had Alzheimers – death certificates commonly list peneumonia or other end-of-life scenarios as the cause.

That’s all very well known (though not, apparently, to the paid-to-lie Thorson.)

Less well-known is the fact that the Lyme prevalence figures are wrong, ignoring whole swathes of territory where Borrelia species are not detected using current hopelessly insensitive serodiagnostic criteria.

Chlamydia bacteria are not spirochetes, but it’s easy to see why you wish to conflate the two. It’s because there is some respectable science correlating Chlamydia infection and Alzheimer’s Disease, which is lacking for spirochetes. The possibility that Borrelia causes AD has been decisively disproven by genuine science. You suffer from cognitive bias — you only accept the sparse reports which support your pre-conceived notions of disease and reject all the others, even when the vast majority are the others. You have entrenched beliefs which are resistant to any reliable data — when the data shows you are wrong, the data itself must be wrong.That’s all very well known (though not, apparently, to the paid-to-lie Thorson.)
Nobody pays me for what I post, nor do I post lies. But your cognitive bias cannot allow you to conceive that any honest, intelligent person can believe your entrenched beliefs are false. No, these people must be “trolls”, “pharma shills”, or something else that can allow you to dismiss their fact-based arguments. Your beliefs are entirely resistant to any facts.

For those who are actually interested in ground-breaking research, but struggle with some of the technical terms, here is an article written for laypersons by microbiologist Tom Grier, explaining the extraordinary findings of Dr MacDonald and the Dr Paul Duray Research Fellowship Endowment,

The hired industry puppet Mark Thorson does not seem to realise that he is making an exhibition of himself here.
I’ve never received a penny for anything I’ve posted, but you just can’t imagine that’s possible. You view the world through deeply colored lenses. Perhaps you need to inhale more of the chemtrails.Not only did I never claim that chlamydia were spirochetes, but you, Mark Thorson, have just completely contradicted yourself.
You said there is good evidence of a chlamydial cause for dementia, when earlier on in this discussion you ridiculed the idea that any bacteria at all could be aetiologically involved in Alzheimer’s.
You were trying to conflate the two, and now you are ascribing statements to me that I never made. I never said there was “good evidence” for a “chlamydial cause for dementia”. There is not. A correlation may exist, but that does not indicate the direction of the arrow of causation. There are well-established vascular pathologies that occur in AD, and these could make the brain susceptible to infections that are less common in non-AD brains. But of course, you cannot accept that. You have long ago decided on your notion of “truth”, and no evidence can dissuade you from that.

The scientists you are attacking are all very public about their credentials. Why do you refuse to give yours? Is it because you don’t have any, Mark Thorson?

Are you the Mark Thorson being discussed in many threads as a paid disinformant who was successfully sued for libel, such as this one:

“One individual was responsible for a great deal of
miscommunication regarding anatoxin-a, information which is
still accessible on many Internet sites. Cell Tech sued Mark
Thorson for posting defamatory statements about Cell Tech,
its products and its personnel to various Internet or Usenet
news groups. Cell Tech’s lawsuit against Mr. Thorson has now
been settled. As part of the settlement agreement, Mr.
Thorson has posted the Retraction Statement that appears
below. Although he did retract the allegations that he had
been widely circulating, we all know that one cannot, with a
single correct statement, undo all the harm done by many mis-
statements that continue to circulate.

The following is a retraction statement that Mark Thorson
has posted to various newsgroups:

Subject: Retraction of Anatoxin-a Primer

‘During the last several years, I have from time to time
posted to this and other newsgroups a file of information
called “An Anatoxin-a Primer.” I now retract the statements
made in the Anatoxin-a Primer…'”

You are just repeating the same tactics always brought against those who decry quackery and charlatanism. You want to pull the spotlight off the criticism by attacking the critic, usually in the form of a) asking for credentials, b) claiming the critic is a “troll”, or c) claiming the critic is a “pharma shill” or as you say “paid disinformant”. This is all a smokescreen to obscure the real, sensible questions that can be asked for this extraordinary claim about Borrelia, a claim bordering on completely preposterous. Given the dubious background of MacDonald — he was advocating an expensive Lyme test condemned by the CDC and FDA — there is solid reason to be extremely skeptical about anything he claims.

As the official CDC spokesperson for all communications relating to Lyme borReliosis
from US Citizens:

I respectfully request that you provIdE me with any and all
communications which were received by the CDC from :

1.State Public Health Officials
2. PHYSICIANS
3. Scientists with US Governmental funding for Lyme Borreliosis Research
4. Federal Employees
5. Members of the U.s. Congress and the U.S. Senate

In connection with allegations that flawed Medical Diagnostic
services were rendered to the public by
Advanced Laboratories, a fully licensed and fully compliant
medical diagnostic facility under the Statues of Pennsylvania.

Under the Freedom Of Information Act, I am requesting documentation
for the allegations of …..Bad Laboratory Medical diagnostic Practices …..(SIC)
by Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories, as is presentED in the
CDC Sanctioned publication in Journal of Clinical Microbiology
2013, “Assessment of New Culture Method to Detect Borrelia species
in Serum of Lyme Disease Patients”, 2013, 14 August, e Pub ahead of print
J.Clin. Microbiology, doi:10.1128/JCM.01674-13, authored by
“Barbara J. B.Johnson, Mark A. Pilgard, and Theresa M Russell”
“Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Ft. Collin, Co, USA”

Direct quotationS from the published manuscript of Johnson et al as captioned
above: {Begin Quote]

” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received numerous inquiries From
national and state health departments and clinicians about the performance of this
culture method since Advanced Laboratory Services began offering it in 2012
[http://www.advanced-lab.com/spirochete.php ]..” End quote] { manuscript submission line 64-67]

Further: Johnson et. al. state in their published manuscript:
….

The contamination scenario described by Johnson and CDC employees is IMPOSSIBLE.
because the Live Control ATCC strains used to validate the acceptability of
a modified BSK Media
were all done in the West Haven research laboratory .
Advanced Laboratories of Philadelphia and were NEvER
in possession of live Control borrelia.
Summation:
TWO geographially separated Laboratories – in a joint scientific Study –
No Cross contamination between the two laboratories.

I have already notified Dr. Thomas Frieden CDC Director of these facts.
I have received no response from Dr Frieden as of this date.

The Johnson et al publication must be officially retracted.
It is factually flawed.

It leads the reader to believe that CDC deposits to GenBank
were published in advance of the J. Clin Microbiology article
so that Impartial and highly vetted expert outside reviewers could analyze
.the content of DNA sequences { generated by CDC scientists in Ft Collins, Co,}

[ KF 170280, KF 170281, KF 170282 ]
with
and use Clustal analysis and BLASTn analysis to compare these with GenBank
accepted and published deposits ofborrel Isolates from humans Subject: CDC abuse of Power – OpEdto the Washington Post

Summary: CDC Misuse of Power
————————————————————————————————————————————
A crucial ERROR in the CDC paper doi:10.1128/JCM.01674-13 was the CDC assumption that CONTAMINATION of patient blood
specimens for analysis resulted in false reports of the Lyme disease spirochete in 51 patients.

Dr. Eva Sapi in her Research Laboratory at the University of New Haven possessed living reference type Lyme spirochetes. In Philadelphia, Penn, at the Advanced Laboratories where all blood cultures were done,

The CDC contamination story was impossible, because none of the alleged contaminants existed there.

The only living borrelia in the Advanced Laboratories building were PRIMARY (new, unique)
isolations of Borrelia from human blood. { A major step forward in the efforts to improve testing for Lyme Disease}

The full power of the CDC is vast. The CDC did not fact check the details before releasing their paper.

Abuse of power is clearly in play here, to the detriment of public health.’

Needless to say, Dr MacDonald never received what he requested under the Freesom of Information Act 3 years ago (the alleged complaints that CDC claimed they had received from health departments re the culture test).

Could that be because there never were any complaints?

CDC also mentioned, in their deeply flawed paper falsely accusing Dr MacDonald’s colleague Dr Sapi of contaminating her cultures, that they had sequenced various portions of DNA and deposited then in Genbank.

When we went to check the sequences in Genbank, they did not exist.

After this was flagged up online, CDC very belatedly deposited some DNA sequences with Genbank.

The alleged “contaminating” organisms were in a lab 200 miles away from the cultures that were allegedly “contaminated”.

CDC’s Theresa Russell admitted later that they did not know this fact when they concocted their allegations.

As is widely known by several tens of thousands of people who viewed the film Under Our Skin, Dr Alan MacDonald does all his work on an unpaid, not-for-profit basis.
Somebody was making a ton of money off this test condemned by the CDC and FDA. I don’t know what MacDonald’s relationship with the lab offering the test was or is, but he was promoting it.Do you do all your “work”, Mark Thorson, on an unpaid, not-for-profit basis?
If you are referring to what I post on the Interrnet, none of it has ever made me even a penny.Do you deny that the retraction posted above by a Mark Thorson who was sued for spreading false information about a medical issue is you?
Was that you or not?
There was a retraction made by me, but if you look up my original retraction you’ll see that I did not say that any of the information I posted was false. Not one sentence in anything I posted about Cell Tech was false.

You are OUT OF LINE. You have NO business getting in here and spreading disinformation. You are neither a doctor nor a patient of Lyme disease or any other illness that anyone can see. You are not correct about anything you have stated. The jury is out on the improper guidelines of the IDSA and the issue has reached Capital Hill because it’s not a fraud. It’s a real public health problem. What on earth is your expertise on Lyme Disease, spirochetes, or anything else? Do you carry multiple dx of this, as I do? Are you a doctor? Are you a researcher? Or you a human rights activist? Are you a teacher? What on earth is your connection to this and your insistence on discrediting scientists and patients about whom you know nothing?

Thorson, you have just confirmed that you are the same Mark Thorson referred to online as having been sued for posting false information about a health product, and admitted that you were ordered to publish a retraction.

Why would a judge order you to publish a retraction if what you had said was true?

Why are you publishing false and extremely libellous allegations, Mark Thorson, in regard to Dr MacDonald when, as you have just admitted, you “Don’t know what [his] relationship with the lab was”?

Why do you spend so much time on the internet trying to discredit discoveries that could potentially save lives, such as Dr MacDonald’s, when you lack even the most basic understanding of the issues?

Recently I had the following conversation with a lady in her 70’s . This lady has just been formally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

She is now going through all the hell that people go through when in those early stages in dementia, fully capable of understanding what lies ahead, fully cognisant of the fact that their mind is crumbling. She has even been told that her MRI shows brain atrophy. Can you imagine how all this must feel? No, I don’t suppose you care.

Here is the conversation we had. ( Mary is not her real name):

Mary: I feel as though I’ve lost my memory.
Me: Yes.

Mary: Am I ever going to get it back?

Me: We have to live with hope, Mary. All over the world, thousands of scientists have been working to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. And in fact, just recently some breakthroughs have been made –

Mary: Oh come on, you know these things take years!
—

What was I supposed to say to her, Mark Thorson?

I know what I would like to have said. I would like to have re-assured her that Dr MacDonald’s phenomenal discovery would soon be translated into clinical practice, and that she might be able to benefit from anti-borrelia and anthelminthic (anti-worm) treatment.

Do the 47 million or so victims of dementia worldwide have to be cheated out of the fruits of discovery, just as the millions of ulcer sufferers had to wait over a decade for the discovery of Helicobacter pylori to be taken seriously, as a direct result of the machinations of Big Pharma to protect their interests in rantiidine and cimetidine, two palliative drugs that did not cure?

Do tens of millions have to suffer because of paid liars like you?

Did it ever occur to you, Mark Thorson, that one day YOU might get dementia?

Thorson, you have just confirmed that you are the same Mark Thorson referred to online as having been sued for posting false information about a health product, and admitted that you were ordered to publish a retraction.

Neither of those things is true. Nothing I posted was false, and the retraction was the result of a settlement agreement.

Why would a judge order you to publish a retraction if what you had said was true?

That’s not true either. There was no trial. But you don’t care. You’re willing to make up any lies to forward your nonsense.

Why are you publishing false and extremely libellous allegations, Mark Thorson, in regard to Dr MacDonald when, as you have just admitted, you “Don’t know what [his] relationship with the lab was”?

Nothing I’ve said about MacDonald is false. If you disagree with that, show me an example of something I’ve said which is false. You can’t.

Why do you spend so much time on the internet trying to discredit discoveries that could potentially save lives, such as Dr MacDonald’s, when you lack even the most basic understanding of the issues?

I most certainly do understand the issues, and I know dubious science when I see it. There’s a large industry exploiting fears of “chronic Lyme disease” to the great harm of their victims. Did you note Bradford Whipple above who says he paid $50K out-of-pocket? I’d count him among the victims of the Lyme industry.

Recently I had the following conversation with a lady in her 70’s . This lady has just been formally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
She is now going through all the hell that people go through when in those early stages in dementia, fully capable of understanding what lies ahead, fully cognisant of the fact that their mind is crumbling. She has even been told that her MRI shows brain atrophy. Can you imagine how all this must feel? No, I don’t suppose you care.

You have no idea how wrong you are. But you don’t care about the truth, as evidenced by your repeated lies about me.

Here is the conversation we had. ( Mary is not her real name):
Mary: I feel as though I’ve lost my memory.
Me: Yes.
Mary: Am I ever going to get it back?
Me: We have to live with hope, Mary. All over the world, thousands of scientists have been working to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. And in fact, just recently some breakthroughs have been made –
Mary: Oh come on, you know these things take years!
—
What was I supposed to say to her, Mark Thorson?

Certainly not that Lyme bacteria caused her Alzheimer’s. That’s not true. Although the cause of Alzheimer’s is not known, that doesn’t mean it’s Lyme bacteria, copper water pipes, wheat gluten, or any of the other dingbat hypotheses that have been floated over the years.

I know what I would like to have said. I would like to have re-assured her that Dr MacDonald’s phenomenal discovery would soon be translated into clinical practice, and that she might be able to benefit from anti-borrelia and anthelminthic (anti-worm) treatment.

And that would be wrong. That would be presenting false hope.

Do the 47 million or so victims of dementia worldwide have to be cheated out of the fruits of discovery, just as the millions of ulcer sufferers had to wait over a decade for the discovery of Helicobacter pylori to be taken seriously, as a direct result of the machinations of Big Pharma to protect their interests in rantiidine and cimetidine, two palliative drugs that did not cure?
Do tens of millions have to suffer because of paid liars like you?
Did it ever occur to you, Mark Thorson, that one day YOU might get dementia?
Elena Cook

Again you repeat your false allegation that I’m a “paid liar”. You’ve got absolutely no regard for the truth. You only care about forwarding your delusions. You are a fool.

False hope is what Big Pharma has been delivering for years with their constant promises of new “miracle drugs” based on ridding the brain of beta-amyloid. This approach is not working, and the reason may well be what Harvard professors Tanzi and Moir have found -ie , that beta amyloid is actually an ANTI-MICROBIAL PEPTIDE, not the cause of the disease.

Finding a known virulent bacteria and a known virulent parasite in the autopsy brains (and specifically in hippocampal plaques!) is massively important and is not “false hope” – it is REAL HOPE.

You cherry-picked papers by teams from CDC and others with conflict of interest, while ignoring a meta-analysis which took into account ALL the papers on the subject.

A google search on “biowarfare lady” is very informative. Normally, I’d say being delusional is not necessarily evidence of insanity, but were you really in psychiatric detention? That would explain so much.

Thorson, 24 years old at the time of the month-long relationship, admitted to an inapproriate relationship that involved sexual penetration.

In Clackamas County Circuit Court, Judge Kathie Steele was visibly distressed at Thorson’s activities with the girl as she sentenced him to three months in jail and three years of formal probation as well as sex-offender registration, counseling and treatment. He also must pay attorney and court costs and fees.

Part of Steele’s distress was because the sentence was for reduced charges – a plea bargain…”

I’ve already said that’s not me, but you can’t accept that in your delusional world. You can’t accept that honest, educated people can not believe your cherished delusions about Lyme disease. And so, you’re willing to believe any lie you can dredge up about those who honestly do not agree that your delusions are reasonable.

Everyone, stop responding to Thorson. He’s a disinformed troll. We could all pile him up with hundreds of pages of real medical records, diagnoses, and give him personal phones for doctors and etc. but his ego is tied up in insulting us and the people working on our behalf and his krumping is not important. Those of us who are interested in science and the scientific method and figuring out what if any link there is between borrelis…not just Lyme…but many borrelias and other illnesses should continue to discuss those things over the top of his head. We have way more important things to deal with than proving the world is round to someone who thinks it is flat. 🙂 Don’t respond to this person. The fact he hangs on in long arguments with others and does not have any ethos about the matter and constantly uses attack to the man shows he’s just not someone who could ever understand without personal experience. I for one am overjoyed that there are people out there trying to understand novel issues surrounding dementia. I’m interested because my dad and uncle had late onset Alzhiemers. I’m very interested in what actually starts the process where the amyloid precursor protein splits at the wrong places. Doctor Dale Breseden of UCLA actually has reversed mild dementia in 9 people of ten, as a recent study shows. This is great news! It means that early on, with some cases, probably only with apoliprotein cases, that this might be something that can be modified. He used a protocol which is available for study online. He mentions how peptides influence whether the APP breaks in the right or wrong manner. What is still unclear is what causes the peptides to malfunction to begin with? Could irritants like spirochetes or other toxins the brain be involved? Great question. Worthy studying.

Why do I care? I have had Lyme for three years. I am being tested to see if I have MCI…which is possible early dementia. Also, I have educated myself on this quite a bit and have compassion on Lyme patients and the hell they go through. Please friend me on facebook if you are suffering and need a helping hand!
Cheers

So how does one go about getting proper testing for Lyme? My husband has been diagnosed with LBD with sudden onset of symptoms. He suffered a tick bite several years ago, but nothing came of it at the time. Where can he go to be tested?